Washington State lets another opportunity slip away: 3 takeaways from High Point loss

There’s a kiss-of-death word that third-year coach David Riley has used fairly often over the past 10 days about the play of his Washington State University men’s basketball team.

It is “stagnation.”

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After the Cougars’ season-opening loss to Davidson on Monday, Riley flung the usage of the word in the direction of the offense and its lack of movement.

And after WSU’s road-debut showing Saturday – an 83-71 loss at reigning Big South Conference champion High Point University in North Carolina – the coach was dismayed by his team’s final 10-minute stretch of defense that enabled the Panthers to break open a tight game.

“We’re not going to win on the road against an NCAA Tournament team when you give up that many free throws and you let them shoot 68 percent from the field in the second half,” Riley told the Cougars Sports Network after the game. “Our defense just wasn’t good enough. And this is a team that can guard. It was frustrating to see us kind of give up that easy shot at the rim.”

After WSU held a 50-48 lead with 12:36 remaining, High Point, which won a game in the 2026 NCAA Tournament just seven months ago, scored on 11 consecutive trips up the floor during a decisive 21-10 run.

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Point guard C.J. Brown was the catalyst, scoring 13 of his team-high 17 points in the second half.

The loss spoiled a career night by sophomore guard Lazerek Houston, who led all scorers with 31 points. Jaylen Harrell added 18, and R.J. Jones chipped in with 12 as the Cougars’ guards tallied 64 of the team’s 71 points.

Here are three instant takeaways in WSU’s loss to High Point:

1. Lazerek Houston delivers the performance Washington State needed

With no Ronnie Harrison (ankle) for a second consecutive game, and coming off a sub-par debut with his new team, Houston wasted no time getting heated up for the Cougars in the road opener.

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And it started on WSU’s second possession of the game when he charged hard down the right baseline at Brown, got up a nifty shot…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/washington-state-lets-another-opportunity-015624135.html

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Publish date : 2026-11-08 01:56:00

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